Agents Reassigned to Rape Case

January 15, 2013

LISBON, Ohio - The state of Ohio's investigation into the Steubenville rape case is being felt in Columbiana County, as Sheriff Ray Stone said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation has pulled two agents from the county and reassigned them to work on the rape case.

The agents were assisting in the Melinda Todd murder investigation and the probe into financial irregularities at the Columbiana County Drug Task Force.

Stone said the investigation in both those cases will be slowed or delayed until those agents return from Steubenville.

"They're short on agents, like everyone else, I guess," he said.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office is prosecuting the case after Jefferson County Prosecutor Jane Hanlin recused herself in August.

The national spotlight is on Steubenville after a group referring to itself as Anonymous targeted the case, in which two Steubenville High School student-athletes are charged with raping a 16-year-old Weirton girl.

The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 13 in Steubenville before visiting Judge Thomas Lipps.